Segmenting multiple repayment schemes

ABSTRACT

A consumer may view a transaction account statement in a GUI. The transaction account issuer may utilize batch processed data and real time data to determine an eligibility for fixed fee payment plans. The consumer may be presented with the option to place a single transaction into a fixed fee payment plan by selecting the transaction. The fixed fee payment plan may comprise a fixed monthly cost. The monthly cost may be calculated to be equal to or less than the amount the consumer would pay if the transaction were subject to the transaction account APR. The transaction account may have a minimum amount due for the fixed fee payment plan and a minimum amount due for the revolving APR balance each month.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to data management, and morespecifically, to segmenting multiple repayment schemes.

BACKGROUND

Consumers may become overwhelmed by transaction account bills. Consumerstypically have the perception that it takes a very long time to pay offa purchase which was completed months ago, or even years ago.Additionally, a consumer may be hesitant to complete a large purchaseusing a transaction account with a monthly annual percentage rate(“APR”), if the consumer does not have a specific plan for paying offthe transaction amount.

SUMMARY

A system, method, and computer readable medium (collectively, “system”)for segmenting multiple repayment schemes are disclosed. The system mayperform steps including: performing a batch processing event; storingbatch processed data from the batch processing event in a datastore;storing a real time event in a cache; determining, based on the batchprocessed data and the real time event, that a consumer is eligible fora fixed fee payment plan; presenting a list of transactions for atransaction account of the consumer in a graphical user interface;receiving first input comprising a selection of a first transaction; andcreating, in response to the first input, a fixed fee payment planincluding the first transaction.

In various embodiments, the system may present a plurality of durationsfor the fixed fee payment plan. The system may receive second inputcomprising a selection of a second transaction, wherein the fixed feepayment plan includes the second transaction in addition to the firsttransaction. The system may remove the first transaction and the secondtransaction from a revolving APR balance of the transaction account. Thesystem may estimate an APR total cost of borrowing for the fixed feepayment plan; calculate, based on the estimating the APR total cost ofborrowing, a fixed finance charge rate; calculate, based on the fixedfinance charge rate, a fixed finance charge amount; and present thefixed finance charge amount in the graphical user interface. The systemmay calculate a monthly fixed fee minimum amount due, wherein themonthly fixed fee minimum amount due comprises: an amount of the fixedfee payment plan divided by a number of months of the fixed fee paymentplan, plus the fixed finance charge amount. The system may calculate aminimum amount due for the transaction account based on a revolving APRminimum amount due and a fixed fee minimum amount due; and present theminimum amount due for the transaction account in the graphical userinterface. The system may calculate a fixed fee minimum amount due;receive a payment to the transaction account, wherein the payment isequal to or greater than a sum of a revolving APR balance and the fixedfee minimum amount due; revolve a remaining balance of the transactionaccount without charging an APR finance charge to the transactionaccount; charge a fixed fee finance charge on a subsequent statementperiod; and exempt a new transaction from the APR finance charge.

The foregoing features and elements may be combined in variouscombinations without exclusivity, unless expressly indicated hereinotherwise. These features and elements as well as the operation of thedisclosed embodiments will become more apparent in light of thefollowing description and accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The subject matter of the present disclosure is particularly pointed outand distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of the specification. Amore complete understanding of the present disclosure, however, may beobtained by referring to the detailed description and claims whenconsidered in connection with the drawing figures, wherein like numeralsdenote like elements.

FIG. 1 illustrates various system components of a system for line itempayment segmentation, in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 2 illustrates a GUI for interfacing with a transaction accountstatement, in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 3 illustrates an example screenshot of a GUI with multiple fixedfee payment plan options, in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example screenshot of the transaction accountincluding the fixed fee payment plan, in accordance with variousembodiments;

FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart of a process for calculating a fixed feepayment plan, in accordance with various embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The detailed description of various embodiments herein makes referenceto the accompanying drawings and pictures, which show variousembodiments by way of illustration. While these various embodiments aredescribed in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art topractice the disclosure, it should be understood that other embodimentsmay be realized and that logical and mechanical changes may be madewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Thus, thedetailed description herein is presented for purposes of illustrationonly and not of limitation. For example, the steps recited in any of themethod or process descriptions may be executed in any order and are notlimited to the order presented. Moreover, any of the functions or stepsmay be outsourced to or performed by one or more third parties.Furthermore, any reference to singular includes plural embodiments, andany reference to more than one component may include a singularembodiment.

A system for line item payment scheduling is disclosed. A consumer mayaccess a transaction account statement online. The transaction accountstatement may provide a total balance, total amount due, and a list ofall (or any subset of) transactions completed during a given billingperiod. As used herein, the individual transaction may include anypurchase, loan (e.g., student loan), activity, event, experience, or anyportion thereof. The individual transaction may be part of a displayedlist of transactions or the individual transaction may sequentially,periodically, or randomly be provided for review or analysis. Theconsumer may have the opportunity to place an individual transaction ina fixed fee payment plan (and separate from the revolving APR balance)by selecting an individual transaction displayed in the list oftransactions. The system may utilize a combination of batch andreal-time processing to determine eligibility and to present fixed feepayment options to the consumer. As used herein, a “revolving APRbalance” is an amount that is subject to an annual percentage rateinterest or finance charge. Although the fixed fee payment plan mayrevolve from month to month, the balance of the fixed fee payment planis not charged any APR, but rather is charged a flat fee finance chargeeach month.

Referring to FIG. 1, a system 100 for line item payment segmentation isillustrated according to various embodiments. The system 100 maycomprise a transaction account issuer (“TAI”) application server 110.The application server 110 may provide graphical user interface (“GUI”),such as a website or mobile application, which allows a consumer tointeract with a TAI. For example, the TAI application server 110 mayprovide a website which allows a consumer to view account statements andmake payments.

The system 100 may comprise a TAI hub 120. The TAI hub 120 may compriseone or more servers and/or databases, such as datastore 180, which storeinformation relevant to a consumer, such as transaction history, accountbalances, credit scores, personal information, etc. The TAI applicationserver 110 may communicate with the TAI hub 120 in order to provideaccount information to the consumer and process payments from theconsumer.

In various embodiments, datastore 180 may be updated on a daily basisutilizing batch processing. For example, datastore 180 may updateconsumer data such as credit scores, default risk, debt capacity, spendcapacity, account balances, etc. every night.

Real time data may be stored in cache 170 between the batch updates ofdatastore 180. For example, throughout a single day a consumer may makepurchases, enter new fixed fee payment plans, incur new revolvingcharges subject to an APR, obtain new transaction accounts, cancelexisting transaction accounts, etc. Each event relevant to a consumermay be stored in the cache 170.

A consumer may interact with the system 100 utilizing one or more webclients. The consumer may use a web client 130 to view statements, makepayments, and otherwise perform transaction account functions. The webclient 130 may interact with TAI application server 110 in order for theconsumer to make payments to the transaction account. In variousembodiments, the web client 130 may comprise a mobile application, andthe user may open the mobile application to interface with the TAIapplication server 110. In various embodiments, the web client 130 maycomprise a touch screen interface, such that consumers may interact withthe GUI by contacting the touch screen interface.

The system 100 may present consumers with options for fixed fee paymentplans. In various embodiments, the system 100 may present the fixed feepayment plan options in real time in response to a user opening orlogging into an application or website, or calling the TAI on the phone.The TAI hub 120 may utilize one or more application programminginterfaces (API) to create and manage fixed fee payment plans.

An account eligibility API 140 may determine whether an account iseligible for a fixed fee payment plan. For example, the accounteligibility API 140 may obtain eligibility data from the datastore 180based on the batch processed data stored in the datastore 180. Theeligibility data may indicate whether the consumer is eligible for afixed fee payment plan. The eligibility data may indicate a maximummonthly payment for the fixed fee payment plans for the consumer. Forexample, the eligibility data may indicate that the consumer is able tospend a maximum of $200 per month in fixed fee payment plans. In variousembodiments, the system 100 may determine, either utilizing the accounteligibility APT 140 or a separate transaction eligibility API, that atransaction is eligible for a fixed fee payment plan. Thus, in additionto determining that the account is eligible for a fixed fee plan, thesystem may determine which transactions are eligible for a fixed feeplan.

The account eligibility APT 140 may communicate with the cache 170 toobtain real time data for the consumer. For example, the cache 170 mayhave an event stored indicating that the consumer entered a fixed feepayment plan that day which includes a $50 per month payment. Thus, theconsumer's eligibility may be decreased to a maximum of $150 per monthin fixed fee payment plans ($200−$50=$150). Thus, any fixed fee paymentplan or transaction which required a monthly payment of greater than$150 would not be available to the consumer.

It would take a large amount of time to fetch real time data for all ofthe batch data stored in the datastore 180. However, by utilizing thebatch data in the datastore 180 in combination with the real time datain the cache 170, the system 100 is able to quickly present real timeoffers to the consumer with decreased processing requirements.

A plan creation API 150 may generate various fixed fee payment plans forthe consumer. For each line item in the consumer's account which iseligible for a fixed fee payment plan, the plan creation API 150 maygenerate one or more fixed fee payment plans which comply with theeligibility determination by the account eligibility API 140. In variousembodiments, the duration of the fixed fee payment plans may becustomized for the specific consumer. For example, the plan creation API150 may evaluate the consumer profile and default risk, and the plancreation API 150 may generate fixed fee payment plans which are tailoredto the specific consumer.

If the consumer selects a fixed fee payment plan, a plan management API160 may control repayment rules for the transaction account. The planmanagement API 160 may segment the fixed fee payment plan from anyrevolving APR balances, as further described herein. For example, inresponse to receiving a payment from the consumer, the plan managementAPI 160 may route a first portion of the payment to cover the minimumamount due of the fixed fee payment plan, a second portion of thepayment to cover a minimum amount due of the revolving APR balance, andthe remainder of the payment to be applied to a remaining balancesubject to the highest rate, followed by any remainder to be applied toa balance subject to lower interest rates, and followed by any remainderto appear as a credit amount on the revolving APR balance. If theconsumer pays the full balance of the revolving APR balance, as well asthe minimum amount due of the fixed fee payment plan by a monthly duedate, the consumer will not be charged any APR finance charge on theremaining balance of the fixed fee payment plan, but rather will becharged the previously agreed upon fixed fee finance charge. Uponreceipt of the aforementioned payment, the revolving APR balance willcease to revolve and will therefore stop accruing APR finances chargesas of the date of the payment. Furthermore, any new APR transactionswill be exempt from an APR finance charge as long as the consumercontinues to make the aforementioned payment in subsequent statementperiods.

Referring to FIG. 2, a GUI 200 for interfacing with a transactionaccount statement is illustrated according to various embodiments. Thestatement may be a summary of charges over a previous billing period.However, in various embodiments, the statement may display transactionsfor a current billing period, transactions in any designated billingperiod, transactions from different billing periods, relatedtransactions, complementary transactions, unrelated transactions,periodic transactions, random transactions, predicted futuretransactions and/or the like. Each line item may provide some or allinformation for an individual transaction. In various embodiments, theinformation may comprise amount, date, time, merchant name, merchantlocation, item purchased, transaction reference number, and/or any otherinformation relevant to the transaction.

In various embodiments, the GUI may provide an option for moving anindividual transaction to a fixed fee payment plan. The system maydetermine eligibility for the consumer to move a transaction to a fixedfee payment plan. In various embodiments, the consumer may be limited toa certain number of fixed fee payment plans at a time, or a limitednumber per year. In various embodiments, the consumer may not beeligible for a fixed fee payment plan unless the consumer is in goodstanding on some or all accounts. In various embodiments, a button nextto each individual transaction may allow the consumer to move thetransaction to the fixed fee payment plan, and the transaction may beremoved from the list of transactions from the revolving APR balancewhich is subject to the APR, and the transaction may be entered into afixed fee payment plan.

Referring to FIG. 3, a screenshot 300 of a GUI with multiple fixed feepayment plan options is illustrated according to various embodiments. Inresponse to the consumer selecting to move a transaction to a fixed feepayment plan, the GUI may provide the consumer with multiple options forpayment terms for the fixed fee payment plan. For example, a three monthplan option, a six month plan option, and a twelve month plan option maybe provided. The GUI may inform the consumer how much the monthlypayment and monthly fixed fee would cost for each payment plan. Theshorter plans may have less total costs associated with the fixed fees.For example, for a $1,800 fixed fee payment plan, the three monthpayment plan may comprise a $600 monthly principal payment, plus a $22monthly fixed fee, for a total cost of $1,866 over the life of thepayment plan. A six month fixed fee payment plan may comprise a $300monthly principal payment, plus a $20 monthly fixed fee, for a totalcost of $1,920. A twelve month fixed fee payment plan may comprise a$150 monthly principal payment, plus a $19 monthly fixed fee, for atotal cost of $2,028. The different options provide the consumer withthe ability to select a payment plan which makes the most sense for theconsumer. Although described as having lower monthly fixed fees forlonger plans, in various embodiments longer plans may have higher,lower, or equal monthly fixed fees compared to shorter plans. Inresponse to the consumer selecting a payment plan, the amount of thetransaction may be removed from the monthly revolving APR balance andplaced in a separate payment plan balance.

In various embodiments, the system may transmit a push notification tothe consumer's web client in response to the consumer completing atransaction, or in response to the transaction posting with the TAI. Invarious embodiments, the push notification may ask the consumer if theywould like to enter the transaction into a fixed fee payment plan. Invarious embodiments, the push notification may comprise multiple optionsfor a fixed fee payment plan for the transaction, as shown in FIG. 3.

Referring to FIG. 4, a screenshot 400 of the transaction accountincluding the fixed fee payment plan is illustrated according to variousembodiments. The transaction account may provide a balance and minimumamount due on the revolving APR balance, balance and minimum amount dueon the fixed fee payment plan, and a total balance and minimum amountdue. The total balance may be the sum of the revolving APR balance andthe fixed fee payment plan balance. The total minimum amount due may bethe sum of the revolving APR minimum amount due and the fixed feepayment plan minimum amount due. Because the consumer has moved thetransaction from the revolving APR balance to the fixed fee paymentplan, the minimum amount due on the revolving APR balance may havedecreased, but the total minimum amount due may have increased.

Referring to FIG. 5, a process for calculating the fee portion of thefixed fee payment plan is illustrated according to various embodiments.The system may estimate an APR total cost of borrowing (step 510). TheAPR total cost of borrowing may be the amount of interest a consumerwould pay for a balance if the balance were subjected to the consumer'sAPR and the consumer paid off the balance in equal payments over theduration of the fixed fee payment plan. The total cost of borrowing maybe calculated as illustrated in Table 1 below:

TABLE 1 Name Calculation APR Based Month 1: Planned Transaction Amount(“PTA”) Beginning Balance Subsequent months: prior month's APR Based(“ABBB”) Ending Balance APR Based ABBB + APR Based Interest Billed − APRBased Ending Balance Total Payment APR Based Month 1: PTA/Plan DurationPrincipal Payment Subsequent: Lesser of Month 1 amount or RemainingBalance APR Based Prior month's APR Based Interest Billed InterestPayment APR Based APR Based Principal Payment + APR Based Total PaymentInterest Payment Daily Percentage APR/365 rounded to 6 decimal placesRate (“DPR”) Month 1 APR Based (ABBB − APR Based Total Payment)*((1 +Interest Billed DPR){circumflex over ( )}(Cycle length − 1) SubsequentAPR ABBB*((1 + DPR){circumflex over ( )}Payment Date − 1) − 1) + BasedInterest (ABBB − APR Based Total Payment + Billed ABBB*((1 +DPR){circumflex over ( )}(Payment Date − 1) − 1))*((1 + DPR){circumflexover ( )}(Cycle Length − Payment Date + 1) − 1) Final Month APRABBB*((1 + DPR){circumflex over ( )}(Payment Date − 1) − 1) BasedInterest Billed Estimated APR Sum of each month's APR Based InterestBilled Based Cost of Borrowing

The system may calculate a fixed finance charge rate based on theEstimated APR Based Cost of Borrowing (step 520). In variousembodiments, the system may set the fixed fee cost of borrowing to beequivalent to the APR Based Cost of Borrowing. Thus, the Fixed FinanceCharge Rate may be equal to the Estimated APR Based Cost of Borrowing,divided by the plan duration, divided by the Planned Transaction Amount.For example, if the Estimated APR Based Cost of Borrowing were $48.05for a three month plan duration of a $2,500 purchase, the Fixed FinanceCharge Rate may be $48.05/3/$2,500 =0.006406. The monthly fixed financecharge amount may then be calculated by multiplying the Fixed FinanceCharge Rate by the Planned Transaction Amount: 0.006406*$2,500=$16.01.Thus, different users with different APRs may have different FixedFinance Charge Rates for fixed fee payment plans of equal beginningbalances and durations.

The system may calculate a fixed fee payment plan monthly minimum amountdue (step 530). The monthly minimum amount due may be the sum of thePlanned Transaction Amount divided by the duration in months, plus themonthly Fixed Finance Charge Amount. The system may calculate a fixedfee payment plan monthly minimum amount due for multiple plan durations.The system may confirm that the total cost of borrowing does not exceedthe Estimated APR Based Cost of Borrowing. The system may also calculatea revolving APR minimum amount due. In various embodiments, therevolving APR minimum amount due may be equal to 1% of the revolving APRbalance plus an APR finance charge. The APR finance charge may be theaccrued interest on the revolving APR balance based on the APR.

The system may present one or more fixed fee payment plans of varyingduration to the consumer (step 540). The different options provide theconsumer with the ability to select a payment plan which makes the mostsense for the consumer. The system may display the duration, monthlyminimum amount due, and total cost of borrowing for each fixed feepayment plan. In response to the consumer selecting one of the fixed feepayment plans, the system may remove a selected transaction from arevolving APR balance and place the transaction in the selected fixedfee payment plan (step 550). As long as the consumer pays the monthlyminimum amount due, the fixed fee payment plan will be paid off in theselected duration, giving consumers a level of certainty, in contrast torevolving APR balances which may take several years or longer to pay offif only the minimum amount due is paid. In various embodiments, thesystem may transmit notifications, e.g. on a monthly basis, which notifythe consumer of progress in the fixed fee payment plan. For example, thesystem may inform the consumer whether the consumer is late, ahead, oron schedule with the fixed fee payment plan, and the system may alsonotify the consumer of any events that altered the status of the fixedfee payment plan.

In various embodiments, the consumer may receive a credit on thetransaction account. For example, a merchant may refund a purchase, orthe consumer may receive a loyalty credit from the transaction accountissuer. In various embodiments, the credit may be larger than themonthly minimum amount due. In such cases, the consumer may not berequired to make a payment to the transaction account for that billingperiod. The fixed fee payment plan may be extended by one month, and nofixed fee finance charge or other interest may be charged to the fixedfee payment plan during that billing period.

In various embodiments, the consumer may place multiple transactionsinto a single fixed fee plan. The consumer may select the transactionsthat the consumer would like to place into the fixed fee payment plan.The system may generate options for a fixed fee payment plan in theamount of the sum of the individual transactions selected by theconsumer. For example, a consumer may have several purchases related toa trip, such as airfare, hotel, and restaurant charges. The consumer mayselect all the transactions related to the trip for creation of a singlefixed fee payment plan.

In various embodiments, consumers may select to place multipleindividual transactions in different fixed fee payment plans. Each timethat a consumer creates a new fixed fee plan, the system may determineconsumer eligibility and transaction eligibility for the new fixed feeplan. The consumer may provide a name for each fixed fee plan, which mayassist the consumer in organization of the fixed fee plans. By providinga plan for paying down transaction account balances, consumers may beencouraged to use transaction accounts for large purchases with thepeace of mind of having a plan to pay off balances.

The detailed description of various embodiments herein makes referenceto the accompanying drawings and pictures, which show variousembodiments by way of illustration. While these various embodiments aredescribed in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art topractice the disclosure, it should be understood that other embodimentsmay be realized and that logical and mechanical changes may be madewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Thus, thedetailed description herein is presented for purposes of illustrationonly and not of limitation. For example, the steps recited in any of themethod or process descriptions may be executed in any order and are notlimited to the order presented. Moreover, any of the functions or stepsmay be outsourced to or performed by one or more third parties.Furthermore, any reference to singular includes plural embodiments, andany reference to more than one component may include a singularembodiment.

Systems, methods and computer program products are provided. In thedetailed description herein, references to “various embodiments,” “oneembodiment,” “an embodiment,” “an example embodiment,” etc., indicatethat the embodiment described may include a particular feature,structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarilyinclude the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover,such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment.Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic isdescribed in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it iswithin the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature,structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodimentswhether or not explicitly described. After reading the description, itwill be apparent to one skilled in the relevant art(s) how to implementthe disclosure in alternative embodiments.

As used herein, “satisfy,” “meet,” “match,” “associated with” or similarphrases may include an identical match, a partial match, meeting certaincriteria, matching a subset of data, a correlation, satisfying certaincriteria, a correspondence, an association, an algorithmic relationshipand/or the like. Similarly, as used herein, “authenticate” or similarterms may include an exact authentication, a partial authentication,authenticating a subset of data, a correspondence, satisfying certaincriteria, an association, an algorithmic relationship and/or the like.

Terms and phrases similar to “associate” and/or “associating” mayinclude tagging, flagging, correlating, using a look-up table or anyother method or system for indicating or creating a relationship betweenelements, such as, for example, (i) a transaction account and (ii) anitem (e.g., offer, reward, discount) and/or digital channel. Moreover,the associating may occur at any point, in response to any suitableaction, event, or period of time. The associating may occur atpre-determined intervals, periodic, randomly, once, more than once, orin response to a suitable request or action. Any of the information maybe distributed and/or accessed via a software enabled link, wherein thelink may be sent via an email, text, post, social network input and/orany other method known in the art.

The phrases consumer, customer, user, account holder, account affiliate,cardmember or the like shall include any person, entity, business,government organization, business, software, hardware, machineassociated with a transaction account, buys merchant offerings offeredby one or more merchants using the account and/or who is legallydesignated for performing transactions on the account, regardless ofwhether a physical card is associated with the account. For example, thecardmember may include a transaction account owner, a transactionaccount user, an account affiliate, a child account user, a subsidiaryaccount user, a beneficiary of an account, a custodian of an account,and/or any other person or entity affiliated or associated with atransaction account.

Any communication, transmission and/or channel discussed herein mayinclude any system or method for delivering content (e.g. data,information, metadata, etc.), and/or the content itself. The content maybe presented in any form or medium, and in various embodiments, thecontent may be delivered electronically and/or capable of beingpresented electronically. For example, a channel may comprise a websiteor device (e.g., Facebook, YOUTUBE®, APPLE®TV®, PANDORA®, XBOX®, SONY®PLAYSTATION®), a uniform resource locator (“URL”), a document (e.g., aMICROSOFT® Word® document, a MICROSOFT® Excel® document, an ADOBE® .pdfdocument, etc.), an “ebook,” an “emagazine,” an application ormicroapplication (as described herein), an SMS or other type of textmessage, an email, Facebook, twitter, MMS and/or other type ofcommunication technology. In various embodiments, a channel may behosted or provided by a data partner. In various embodiments, thedistribution channel may comprise at least one of a merchant website, asocial media website, affiliate or partner websites, an external vendor,a mobile device communication, social media network and/or locationbased service. Distribution channels may include at least one of amerchant website, a social media site, affiliate or partner websites, anexternal vendor, and a mobile device communication. Examples of socialmedia sites include FACEBOOK®, FOURSQUARE®, TWITTER®, MYSPACE®,LINKEDIN®, and the like. Examples of affiliate or partner websitesinclude AMERICAN EXPRESS®, GROUPON®, LIVINGSOCIAL®, and the like.Moreover, examples of mobile device communications include texting,email, and mobile applications for smartphones.

In various embodiments, the methods described herein are implementedusing the various particular machines described herein. The methodsdescribed herein may be implemented using the below particular machines,and those hereinafter developed, in any suitable combination, as wouldbe appreciated immediately by one skilled in the art. Further, as isunambiguous from this disclosure, the methods described herein mayresult in various transformations of certain articles.

For the sake of brevity, conventional data networking, applicationdevelopment and other functional aspects of the systems (and componentsof the individual operating components of the systems) may not bedescribed in detail herein. Furthermore, the connecting lines shown inthe various figures contained herein are intended to represent exemplaryfunctional relationships and/or physical couplings between the variouselements. It should be noted that many alternative or additionalfunctional relationships or physical connections may be present in apractical system.

The various system components discussed herein may include one or moreof the following: a host server or other computing systems including aprocessor for processing digital data; a memory coupled to the processorfor storing digital data; an input digitizer coupled to the processorfor inputting digital data; an application program stored in the memoryand accessible by the processor for directing processing of digital databy the processor; a display device coupled to the processor and memoryfor displaying information derived from digital data processed by theprocessor; and a plurality of databases. Various databases used hereinmay include: client data; merchant data; financial institution data;and/or like data useful in the operation of the system. As those skilledin the art will appreciate, user computer may include an operatingsystem (e.g., WINDOWS®, OS2, UNIX®, LINUX®, SOLARIS®, MacOS, etc.) aswell as various conventional support software and drivers typicallyassociated with computers.

The present system or any part(s) or function(s) thereof may beimplemented using hardware, software or a combination thereof and may beimplemented in one or more computer systems or other processing systems.However, the manipulations performed by embodiments were often referredto in terms, such as matching or selecting, which are commonlyassociated with mental operations performed by a human operator. No suchcapability of a human operator is necessary, or desirable in most cases,in any of the operations described herein. Rather, the operations may bemachine operations. Useful machines for performing the variousembodiments include general purpose digital computers or similardevices.

In fact, in various embodiments, the embodiments are directed toward oneor more computer systems capable of carrying out the functionalitydescribed herein. The computer system includes one or more processors,such as processor. The processor is connected to a communicationinfrastructure (e.g., a communications bus, cross over bar, or network).Various software embodiments are described in terms of this exemplarycomputer system. After reading this description, it will become apparentto a person skilled in the relevant art(s) how to implement variousembodiments using other computer systems and/or architectures. Computersystem can include a display interface that forwards graphics, text, andother data from the communication infrastructure (or from a frame buffernot shown) for display on a display unit.

Computer system also includes a main memory, such as for example randomaccess memory (RAM), and may also include a secondary memory. Thesecondary memory may include, for example, a hard disk drive and/or aremovable storage drive, representing a floppy disk drive, a magnetictape drive, an optical disk drive, etc. The removable storage drivereads from and/or writes to a removable storage unit in a well-knownmanner. Removable storage unit represents a floppy disk, magnetic tape,optical disk, etc. which is read by and written to by removable storagedrive. As will be appreciated, the removable storage unit includes acomputer usable storage medium having stored therein computer softwareand/or data.

In various embodiments, secondary memory may include other similardevices for allowing computer programs or other instructions to beloaded into computer system. Such devices may include, for example, aremovable storage unit and an interface. Examples of such may include aprogram cartridge and cartridge interface (such as that found in videogame devices), a removable memory chip (such as an erasable programmableread only memory (EPROM), or programmable read only memory (PROM)) andassociated socket, and other removable storage units and interfaces,which allow software and data to be transferred from the removablestorage unit to computer system.

Computer system may also include a communications interface.Communications interface allows software and data to be transferredbetween computer system and external devices. Examples of communicationsinterface may include a modem, a network interface (such as an Ethernetcard), a communications port, a Personal Computer Memory CardInternational Association (PCMCIA) slot and card, etc. Software and datatransferred via communications interface are in the form of signalswhich may be electronic, electromagnetic, optical or other signalscapable of being received by communications interface. These signals areprovided to communications interface via a communications path (e.g.,channel). This channel carries signals and may be implemented usingwire, cable, fiber optics, a telephone line, a cellular link, a radiofrequency (RF) link, wireless and other communications channels.

The terms “computer program medium” and “computer usable medium” and“computer readable medium” are used to generally refer to media such asremovable storage drive and a hard disk installed in hard disk drive.These computer program products provide software to computer system.

Computer programs (also referred to as computer control logic) arestored in main memory and/or secondary memory. Computer programs mayalso be received via communications interface. Such computer programs,when executed, enable the computer system to perform the features asdiscussed herein. In particular, the computer programs, when executed,enable the processor to perform the features of various embodiments.Accordingly, such computer programs represent controllers of thecomputer system.

In various embodiments, software may be stored in a computer programproduct and loaded into computer system using removable storage drive,hard disk drive or communications interface. The control logic(software), when executed by the processor, causes the processor toperform the functions of various embodiments as described herein. Invarious embodiments, hardware components such as application specificintegrated circuits (ASICs). Implementation of the hardware statemachine so as to perform the functions described herein will be apparentto persons skilled in the relevant art(s).

In various embodiments, the server may include application servers (e.g.WEB SPHERE, WEB LOGIC, JBOSS). In various embodiments, the server mayinclude application servers (e.g. APACHE, IIS, GWS, SUN JAVA® SYSTEMAPPLICATION SERVER).

A web client includes any device (e.g., personal computer) whichcommunicates via any network, for example such as those discussedherein. Such browser applications comprise Internet browsing softwareinstalled within a computing unit or a system to conduct onlinetransactions and/or communications. These computing units or systems maytake the form of a computer or set of computers, although other types ofcomputing units or systems may be used, including laptops, notebooks,tablets, hand held computers, personal digital assistants, set-topboxes, workstations, computer-servers, main frame computers,mini-computers, PC servers, pervasive computers, network sets ofcomputers, personal computers, such as IPADS®, IMACS®, and MACBOOKS®,kiosks, terminals, point of sale (POS) devices and/or terminals,televisions, or any other device capable of receiving data over anetwork. A web-client may run MICROSOFT® INTERNET EXPLORER®, MOZILLA®FIREFOX®, GOOGLE® CHROME®, APPLE® Safari, or any other of the myriadsoftware packages available for browsing the internet.

Practitioners will appreciate that a web client may or may not be indirect contact with an application server. For example, a web client mayaccess the services of an application server through another serverand/or hardware component, which may have a direct or indirectconnection to an Internet server. For example, a web client maycommunicate with an application server via a load balancer. In variousembodiments, access is through a network or the Internet through acommercially-available web-browser software package.

As those skilled in the art will appreciate, a web client includes anoperating system (e.g., WINDOWS®/CE/Mobile, OS2, UNIX®, LINUX®,SOLARIS®, MacOS, etc.) as well as various conventional support softwareand drivers typically associated with computers. A web client mayinclude any suitable personal computer, network computer, workstation,personal digital assistant, cellular phone, smart phone, minicomputer,mainframe or the like. A web client can be in a home or businessenvironment with access to a network. In various embodiments, access isthrough a network or the Internet through a commercially availableweb-browser software package. A web client may implement securityprotocols such as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport LayerSecurity (TLS). A web client may implement several application layerprotocols including http, https, ftp, and sftp.

In various embodiments, components, modules, and/or engines of system100 may be implemented as micro-applications or micro-apps. Micro-appsare typically deployed in the context of a mobile operating system,including for example, a WINDOWS® mobile operating system, an ANDROID®Operating System, APPLE® IOS®, a BLACKBERRY® operating system and thelike. The micro-app may be configured to leverage the resources of thelarger operating system and associated hardware via a set ofpredetermined rules which govern the operations of various operatingsystems and hardware resources. For example, where a micro-app desiresto communicate with a device or network other than the mobile device ormobile operating system, the micro-app may leverage the communicationprotocol of the operating system and associated device hardware underthe predetermined rules of the mobile operating system. Moreover, wherethe micro-app desires an input from a user, the micro-app may beconfigured to request a response from the operating system whichmonitors various hardware components and then communicates a detectedinput from the hardware to the micro-app.

As used herein, the term “network” includes any cloud, cloud computingsystem or electronic communications system or method which incorporateshardware and/or software components. Communication among the parties maybe accomplished through any suitable communication channels, such as,for example, a telephone network, an extranet, an intranet, Internet,point of interaction device (point of sale device, personal digitalassistant (e.g., IPHONE®, BLACKBERRY®), cellular phone, kiosk, etc.),online communications, satellite communications, off-linecommunications, wireless communications, transponder communications,local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), virtual privatenetwork (VPN), networked or linked devices, keyboard, mouse and/or anysuitable communication or data input modality. Moreover, although thesystem is frequently described herein as being implemented with TCP/IPcommunications protocols, the system may also be implemented using IPX,APPLE®talk, IP-6, NetBIOS®, OSI, any tunneling protocol (e.g. IPsec,SSH), or any number of existing or future protocols. If the network isin the nature of a public network, such as the Internet, it may beadvantageous to presume the network to be insecure and open toeavesdroppers. Specific information related to the protocols, standards,and application software utilized in connection with the Internet isgenerally known to those skilled in the art and, as such, need not bedetailed herein. See, for example, DILIP NAIK, INTERNET STANDARDS ANDPROTOCOLS (1998); JAVA® 2 COMPLETE, various authors, (Sybex 1999);DEBORAH RAY AND ERIC RAY, MASTERING HTML 4.0 (1997); and LOSHIN, TCP/IPCLEARLY EXPLAINED (1997) and DAVID GOURLEY AND BRIAN TOTTY, HTTP, THEDEFINITIVE GUIDE (2002), the contents of which are hereby incorporatedby reference.

The various system components may be independently, separately orcollectively suitably coupled to the network via data links whichincludes, for example, a connection to an Internet Service Provider(ISP) over the local loop as is typically used in connection withstandard modem communication, cable modem, Dish Networks®, ISDN, DigitalSubscriber Line (DSL), or various wireless communication methods, see,e.g., GILBERT HELD, UNDERSTANDING DATA COMMUNICATIONS (1996), which ishereby incorporated by reference. It is noted that the network may beimplemented as other types of networks, such as an interactivetelevision (ITV) network. Moreover, the system contemplates the use,sale or distribution of any goods, services or information over anynetwork having similar functionality described herein.

“Cloud” or “Cloud computing” includes a model for enabling convenient,on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computingresources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services)that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal managementeffort or service provider interaction. Cloud computing may includelocation-independent computing, whereby shared servers provideresources, software, and data to computers and other devices on demand.For more information regarding cloud computing, see the NIST' s(National Institute of Standards and Technology) definition of cloudcomputing athttp://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-145/SP800-145.pdf (lastvisited June 2012), which is hereby incorporated by reference in itsentirety.

As used herein, “transmit” may include sending electronic data from onesystem component to another over a network connection. Additionally, asused herein, “data” may include encompassing information such ascommands, queries, files, data for storage, and the like in digital orany other form.

The system contemplates uses in association with web services, utilitycomputing, pervasive and individualized computing, security and identitysolutions, autonomic computing, cloud computing, commodity computing,mobility and wireless solutions, open source, biometrics, grid computingand/or mesh computing.

Any databases discussed herein may include relational, hierarchical,graphical, blockchain, object-oriented structure and/or any otherdatabase configurations. Common database products that may be used toimplement the databases include DB2 by IBM® (Armonk, N.Y.), variousdatabase products available from ORACLE® Corporation (Redwood Shores,Calif.), MICROSOFT® Access® or MICROSOFT® SQL Server® by MICROSOFT®Corporation (Redmond, Wash.), MySQL by MySQL AB (Uppsala, Sweden), orany other suitable database product. Moreover, the databases may beorganized in any suitable manner, for example, as data tables or lookuptables. Each record may be a single file, a series of files, a linkedseries of data fields or any other data structure.

Association of certain data may be accomplished through any desired dataassociation technique such as those known or practiced in the art. Forexample, the association may be accomplished either manually orautomatically. Automatic association techniques may include, forexample, a database search, a database merge, GREP, AGREP, SQL, using akey field in the tables to speed searches, sequential searches throughall the tables and files, sorting records in the file according to aknown order to simplify lookup, and/or the like. The association stepmay be accomplished by a database merge function, for example, using a“key field” in pre-selected databases or data sectors. Various databasetuning steps are contemplated to optimize database performance. Forexample, frequently used files such as indexes may be placed on separatefile systems to reduce In/Out (“I/O”) bottlenecks.

More particularly, a “key field” partitions the database according tothe high-level class of objects defined by the key field. For example,certain types of data may be designated as a key field in a plurality ofrelated data tables and the data tables may then be linked on the basisof the type of data in the key field. The data corresponding to the keyfield in each of the linked data tables is preferably the same or of thesame type. However, data tables having similar, though not identical,data in the key fields may also be linked by using AGREP, for example.In accordance with one embodiment, any suitable data storage techniquemay be utilized to store data without a standard format. Data sets maybe stored using any suitable technique, including, for example, storingindividual files using an ISO/IEC 7816-4 file structure; implementing adomain whereby a dedicated file is selected that exposes one or moreelementary files containing one or more data sets; using data setsstored in individual files using a hierarchical filing system; data setsstored as records in a single file (including compression, SQLaccessible, hashed via one or more keys, numeric, alphabetical by firsttuple, etc.); Binary Large Object (BLOB); stored as ungrouped dataelements encoded using ISO/IEC 7816-6 data elements; stored as ungroupeddata elements encoded using ISO/IEC Abstract Syntax Notation (ASN.1) asin ISO/IEC 8824 and 8825; and/or other proprietary techniques that mayinclude fractal compression methods, image compression methods, etc.

In various embodiments, the ability to store a wide variety ofinformation in different formats is facilitated by storing theinformation as a BLOB. Thus, any binary information can be stored in astorage space associated with a data set. As discussed above, the binaryinformation may be stored in association with the system or external tobut affiliated with system. The BLOB method may store data sets asungrouped data elements formatted as a block of binary via a fixedmemory offset using either fixed storage allocation, circular queuetechniques, or best practices with respect to memory management (e.g.,paged memory, least recently used, etc.). By using BLOB methods, theability to store various data sets that have different formatsfacilitates the storage of data, in the database or associated with thesystem, by multiple and unrelated owners of the data sets. For example,a first data set which may be stored may be provided by a first party, asecond data set which may be stored may be provided by an unrelatedsecond party, and yet a third data set which may be stored, may beprovided by an third party unrelated to the first and second party. Eachof these three exemplary data sets may contain different informationthat is stored using different data storage formats and/or techniques.Further, each data set may contain subsets of data that also may bedistinct from other subsets.

As stated above, in various embodiments, the data can be stored withoutregard to a common format. However, the data set (e.g., BLOB) may beannotated in a standard manner when provided for manipulating the datain the database or system. The annotation may comprise a short header,trailer, or other appropriate indicator related to each data set that isconfigured to convey information useful in managing the various datasets. For example, the annotation may be called a “condition header,”“header,” “trailer,” or “status,” herein, and may comprise an indicationof the status of the data set or may include an identifier correlated toa specific issuer or owner of the data. In one example, the first threebytes of each data set BLOB may be configured or configurable toindicate the status of that particular data set; e.g., LOADED,INITIALIZED, READY, BLOCKED, REMOVABLE, or DELETED. Subsequent bytes ofdata may be used to indicate for example, the identity of the issuer,user, transaction/membership account identifier or the like. Each ofthese condition annotations are further discussed herein.

The data set annotation may also be used for other types of statusinformation as well as various other purposes. For example, the data setannotation may include security information establishing access levels.The access levels may, for example, be configured to permit only certainindividuals, levels of employees, companies, or other entities to accessdata sets, or to permit access to specific data sets based on thetransaction, merchant, issuer, user or the like. Furthermore, thesecurity information may restrict/permit only certain actions such asaccessing, modifying, and/or deleting data sets. In one example, thedata set annotation indicates that only the data set owner or the userare permitted to delete a data set, various identified users may bepermitted to access the data set for reading, and others are altogetherexcluded from accessing the data set. However, other access restrictionparameters may also be used allowing various entities to access a dataset with various permission levels as appropriate.

The data, including the header or trailer may be received by astandalone interaction device configured to add, delete, modify, oraugment the data in accordance with the header or trailer. As such, inone embodiment, the header or trailer is not stored on the transactiondevice along with the associated issuer-owned data but instead theappropriate action may be taken by providing to the user at thestandalone device, the appropriate option for the action to be taken.The system may contemplate a data storage arrangement wherein the headeror trailer, or header or trailer history, of the data is stored on thesystem, device or transaction instrument in relation to the appropriatedata.

One skilled in the art will also appreciate that, for security reasons,any databases, systems, devices, servers or other components of thesystem may consist of any combination thereof at a single location or atmultiple locations, wherein each database or system includes any ofvarious suitable security features, such as firewalls, access codes,encryption, decryption, compression, decompression, and/or the like.

Encryption may be performed by way of any of the techniques nowavailable in the art or which may become available—e.g., Twofish, RSA,El Gamal, Schorr signature, DSA, PGP, PKI, GPG (GnuPG), and symmetricand asymmetric cryptosy stems.

The computing unit of the web client may be further equipped with anInternet browser connected to the Internet or an intranet using standarddial-up, cable, DSL or any other Internet protocol known in the art.Transactions originating at a web client may pass through a firewall inorder to prevent unauthorized access from users of other networks.Further, additional firewalls may be deployed between the varyingcomponents of the system to further enhance security.

Firewall may include any hardware and/or software suitably configured toprotect system components and/or enterprise computing resources fromusers of other networks. Further, a firewall may be configured to limitor restrict access to various systems and components behind the firewallfor web clients connecting through an application server. Firewall mayreside in varying configurations including Stateful Inspection, Proxybased, access control lists, and Packet Filtering among others. Firewallmay be integrated within an application server or any other CMScomponents or may further reside as a separate entity. A firewall mayimplement network address translation (“NAT”) and/or network addressport translation (“NAPT”). A firewall may accommodate various tunnelingprotocols to facilitate secure communications, such as those used invirtual private networking. A firewall may implement a demilitarizedzone (“DMZ”) to facilitate communications with a public network such asthe Internet. A firewall may be integrated as software within anInternet server, any other application server components or may residewithin another computing device or may take the form of a standalonehardware component.

The computers discussed herein may provide a suitable website or otherInternet-based graphical user interface which is accessible by users. Inone embodiment, the MICROSOFT® INTERNET INFORMATION SERVICES® (IIS),MICROSOFT® Transaction Server (MTS), and MICROSOFT® SQL Server, are usedin conjunction with the MICROSOFT® operating system, MICROSOFT® NTapplication server software, a MICROSOFT® SQL Server database system,and a MICROSOFT® Commerce Server. Additionally, components such asAccess or MICROSOFT® SQL Server, ORACLE®, Sybase, Informix MySQL,Interbase, etc., may be used to provide an Active Data Object (ADO)compliant database management system. In one embodiment, the Apacheapplication server is used in conjunction with a Linux operating system,a MySQL database, and the Perl, PHP, and/or Python programminglanguages.

Any of the communications, inputs, storage, databases or displaysdiscussed herein may be facilitated through a website having web pages.The term “web page” as it is used herein is not meant to limit the typeof documents and applications that might be used to interact with theuser. For example, a typical website might include, in addition tostandard HTML documents, various forms, JAVA® applets, JAVASCRIPT,active server pages (ASP), common gateway interface scripts (CGI),extensible markup language (XML), dynamic HTML, cascading style sheets(CSS), AJAX (Asynchronous JAVASCRIPT And XML), helper applications,plug-ins, and the like. A server may include a web service that receivesa request from an application server, the request including a URL and anIP address (123.56.789.234). The application server retrieves theappropriate web pages and sends the data or applications for the webpages to the IP address. Web services are applications that are capableof interacting with other applications over a communications means, suchas the internet. Web services are typically based on standards orprotocols such as XML, SOAP, AJAX, WSDL and UDDI. Web services methodsare well known in the art, and are covered in many standard texts. See,e.g., ALEX NGHIEM, IT WEB SERVICES: A ROADMAP FOR THE ENTERPRISE (2003),hereby incorporated by reference.

Middleware may include any hardware and/or software suitably configuredto facilitate communications and/or process transactions betweendisparate computing systems. Middleware components are commerciallyavailable and known in the art. Middleware may be implemented throughcommercially available hardware and/or software, through custom hardwareand/or software components, or through a combination thereof. Middlewaremay reside in a variety of configurations and may exist as a standalonesystem or may be a software component residing on the Internet server.Middleware may be configured to process transactions between the variouscomponents of an application server and any number of internal orexternal systems for any of the purposes disclosed herein. WEBSPHEREMQTM (formerly MQSeries) by IBM®, Inc. (Armonk, NY) is an example of acommercially available middleware product. An Enterprise Service Bus(“ESB”) application is another example of middleware.

Practitioners will also appreciate that there are a number of methodsfor displaying data within a browser-based document. Data may berepresented as standard text or within a fixed list, scrollable list,drop-down list, editable text field, fixed text field, pop-up window,and the like. Likewise, there are a number of methods available formodifying data in a web page such as, for example, free text entry usinga keyboard, selection of menu items, check boxes, option boxes, and thelike.

The system and method may be described herein in terms of functionalblock components, screen shots, optional selections and variousprocessing steps. It should be appreciated that such functional blocksmay be realized by any number of hardware and/or software componentsconfigured to perform the specified functions. For example, the systemmay employ various integrated circuit components, e.g., memory elements,processing elements, logic elements, look-up tables, and the like, whichmay carry out a variety of functions under the control of one or moremicroprocessors or other control devices. Similarly, the softwareelements of the system may be implemented with any programming orscripting language such as C, C++, C#, JAVA®, JAVASCRIPT, VBScript,Macromedia Cold Fusion, COBOL, MICROSOFT® Active Server Pages, assembly,PERL, PHP, awk, Python, Visual Basic, SQL Stored Procedures, PL/SQL, anyUNIX shell script, and extensible markup language (XML) with the variousalgorithms being implemented with any combination of data structures,objects, processes, routines or other programming elements. Further, itshould be noted that the system may employ any number of conventionaltechniques for data transmission, signaling, data processing, networkcontrol, and the like. Still further, the system could be used to detector prevent security issues with a client-side scripting language, suchas JAVASCRIPT, VBScript or the like. For a basic introduction ofcryptography and network security, see any of the following references:(1) “Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, And Source Code In C,”by Bruce Schneier, published by John Wiley & Sons (second edition,1995); (2) “JAVA® Cryptography” by Jonathan Knudson, published byO'Reilly & Associates (1998); (3) “Cryptography & Network Security:Principles & Practice” by William Stallings, published by Prentice Hall;all of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

As used herein, the term “end user,” “consumer,” “customer,”“cardmember,” “business” or “merchant” may be used interchangeably witheach other, and each shall mean any person, entity, governmentorganization, business, machine, hardware, and/or software. A bank maybe part of the system, but the bank may represent other types of cardissuing institutions, such as credit card companies, card sponsoringcompanies, or third party issuers under contract with financialinstitutions. It is further noted that other participants may beinvolved in some phases of the transaction, such as an intermediarysettlement institution, but these participants are not shown.

Each participant is equipped with a computing device in order tointeract with the system and facilitate online commerce transactions.The customer has a computing unit in the form of a personal computer,although other types of computing units may be used including laptops,notebooks, hand held computers, set-top boxes, cellular telephones,touch-tone telephones and the like. The merchant has a computing unitimplemented in the form of a computer-server, although otherimplementations are contemplated by the system. The bank has a computingcenter shown as a main frame computer. However, the bank computingcenter may be implemented in other forms, such as a mini-computer, a PCserver, a network of computers located in the same of differentgeographic locations, or the like. Moreover, the system contemplates theuse, sale or distribution of any goods, services or information over anynetwork having similar functionality described herein

The merchant computer and the bank computer may be interconnected via asecond network, referred to as a payment network. The payment networkwhich may be part of certain transactions represents existingproprietary networks that presently accommodate transactions for creditcards, debit cards, and other types of financial/banking cards. Thepayment network is a closed network that is assumed to be secure fromeavesdroppers. Exemplary transaction networks may include the AmericanExpress®, VisaNet®, Veriphone®, Discover Card®, PayPal®, ApplePay®,GooglePay®, private networks (e.g., department store networks), and/orany other payment networks.

The electronic commerce system may be implemented at the customer andissuing bank. In an exemplary implementation, the electronic commercesystem is implemented as computer software modules loaded onto thecustomer computer and the banking computing center. The merchantcomputer does not require any additional software to participate in theonline commerce transactions supported by the online commerce system.

As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, the systemmay be embodied as a customization of an existing system, an add-onproduct, a processing apparatus executing upgraded software, astand-alone system, a distributed system, a method, a data processingsystem, a device for data processing, and/or a computer program product.Accordingly, any portion of the system or a module may take the form ofa processing apparatus executing code, an internet based embodiment, anentirely hardware embodiment, or an embodiment combining aspects of theinternet, software and hardware. Furthermore, the system may take theform of a computer program product on a computer-readable storage mediumhaving computer-readable program code means embodied in the storagemedium. Any suitable computer-readable storage medium may be utilized,including hard disks, CD-ROM, optical storage devices, magnetic storagedevices, and/or the like.

The system and method is described herein with reference to screenshots, block diagrams and flowchart illustrations of methods, apparatus(e.g., systems), and computer program products according to variousembodiments. It will be understood that each functional block of theblock diagrams and the flowchart illustrations, and combinations offunctional blocks in the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations,respectively, can be implemented by computer program instructions.

These computer program instructions may be loaded onto a general purposecomputer, special purpose computer, or other programmable dataprocessing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructionsthat execute on the computer or other programmable data processingapparatus create means for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks. These computer program instructions may alsobe stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meanswhich implement the function specified in the flowchart block or blocks.The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series ofoperational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmableapparatus to produce a computer-implemented process such that theinstructions which execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks.

Accordingly, functional blocks of the block diagrams and flowchartillustrations support combinations of means for performing the specifiedfunctions, combinations of steps for performing the specified functions,and program instruction means for performing the specified functions. Itwill also be understood that each functional block of the block diagramsand flowchart illustrations, and combinations of functional blocks inthe block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, can be implemented byeither special purpose hardware-based computer systems which perform thespecified functions or steps, or suitable combinations of specialpurpose hardware and computer instructions. Further, illustrations ofthe process flows and the descriptions thereof may make reference touser WINDOWS®, webpages, websites, web forms, prompts, etc.Practitioners will appreciate that the illustrated steps describedherein may comprise in any number of configurations including the use ofWINDOWS®, webpages, web forms, popup WINDOWS®, prompts and the like. Itshould be further appreciated that the multiple steps as illustrated anddescribed may be combined into single webpages and/or WINDOWS® but havebeen expanded for the sake of simplicity. In other cases, stepsillustrated and described as single process steps may be separated intomultiple webpages and/or WINDOWS® but have been combined for simplicity.

The term “non-transitory” is to be understood to remove only propagatingtransitory signals per se from the claim scope and does not relinquishrights to all standard computer-readable media that are not onlypropagating transitory signals per se. Stated another way, the meaningof the term “non-transitory computer-readable medium” and“non-transitory computer-readable storage medium” should be construed toexclude only those types of transitory computer-readable media whichwere found in In Re Nuijten to fall outside the scope of patentablesubject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101.

Benefits, other advantages, and solutions to problems have beendescribed herein with regard to specific embodiments. However, thebenefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any elements that maycause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become morepronounced are not to be construed as critical, required, or essentialfeatures or elements of the disclosure. The scope of the disclosure isaccordingly to be limited by nothing other than the appended claims, inwhich reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean“one and only one” unless explicitly so stated, but rather “one ormore.” Moreover, where a phrase similar to ‘at least one of A, B, and C′or ‘at least one of A, B, or C′ is used in the claims or specification,it is intended that the phrase be interpreted to mean that A alone maybe present in an embodiment, B alone may be present in an embodiment, Calone may be present in an embodiment, or that any combination of theelements A, B and C may be present in a single embodiment; for example,A and B, A and C, B and C, or A and B and C.

Although the disclosure includes a method, it is contemplated that itmay be embodied as computer program instructions on a tangiblecomputer-readable carrier, such as a magnetic or optical memory or amagnetic or optical disk. All structural, chemical, and functionalequivalents to the elements of the above-described various embodimentsthat are known to those of ordinary skill in the art are expresslyincorporated herein by reference and are intended to be encompassed bythe present claims. Moreover, it is not necessary for a device or methodto address each and every problem sought to be solved by the presentdisclosure, for it to be encompassed by the present claims. Furthermore,no element, component, or method step in the present disclosure isintended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether theelement, component, or method step is explicitly recited in the claims.No claim element is intended to invoke 35 U.S.C. 112(f) unless theelement is expressly recited using the phrase “means for.” As usedherein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” or any other variationthereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that aprocess, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elementsdoes not include only those elements but may include other elements notexpressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, orapparatus.

In various embodiments, system components may be configured with abiometric security system that may be used for providing biometrics as asecondary form of identification. The biometric security system mayinclude a transponder and a reader communicating with the system. Thebiometric security system also may include a biometric sensor thatdetects biometric samples and a device for verifying biometric samples.The biometric security system may be configured with one or morebiometric scanners, processors and/or systems. A biometric system mayinclude one or more technologies, or any portion thereof, such as, forexample, recognition of a biometric. As used herein, a biometric mayinclude a user's voice, fingerprint, facial, ear, signature, vascularpatterns, DNA sampling, hand geometry, sound, olfactory,keystroke/typing, iris, retinal or any other biometric relating torecognition based upon any body part, function, system, attribute and/orother characteristic, or any portion thereof.

Phrases and terms similar to a “party” may include any individual,consumer, customer, group, business, organization, government entity,transaction account issuer or processor (e.g., credit, charge, etc.),merchant, consortium of merchants, account holder, charitableorganization, software, hardware, and/or any other type of entity. Theterms “user,” “consumer,” “purchaser,” and/or the plural form of theseterms are used interchangeably throughout herein to refer to thosepersons or entities that are alleged to be authorized to use atransaction account.

Phrases and terms similar to “account,” “transaction account,” “accountnumber,” “account code” or “consumer account” as used herein, mayinclude any device, code (e.g., one or more of an authorization/accesscode, personal identification number (“PIN”), Internet code, otheridentification code, and/or the like), number, letter, symbol, digitalcertificate, smart chip, digital signal, analog signal, biometric orother identifier/indicia suitably configured to allow the consumer toaccess, interact with or communicate with the system. The account numbermay optionally be located on or associated with a rewards account,charge account, credit account, debit account, prepaid account,telephone card, embossed card, smart card, magnetic stripe card, barcode card, transponder, radio frequency card or an associated account.

The account number may be distributed and stored in any form of plastic,electronic, magnetic, radio frequency, wireless, audio and/or opticaldevice capable of transmitting or downloading data from itself to asecond device. A consumer account number may be, for example, asixteen-digit account number, although each credit provider has its ownnumbering system, such as the fifteen-digit numbering system used byAmerican Express. Each company's account numbers comply with thatcompany's standardized format such that the company using afifteen-digit format will generally use three-spaced sets of numbers, asrepresented by the number “0000 000000 00000”. The first five to sevendigits are reserved for processing purposes and identify the issuingbank, account type, etc. In this example, the last (fifteenth) digit isused as a sum check for the fifteen digit number. The intermediaryeight-to-eleven digits are used to uniquely identify the consumer. Amerchant account number may be, for example, any number or alpha-numericcharacters that identify a particular merchant for purposes of accountacceptance, account reconciliation, reporting, or the like.

The system may include or interface with any of the accounts, devices,and/or a transponder and reader (e.g. RFID reader) in RF communicationwith the transponder (which may include a fob), or communicationsbetween an initiator and a target enabled by near field communications(NFC). Typical devices may include, for example, a key ring, tag, card,cell phone, wristwatch or any such form capable of being presented forinterrogation. Moreover, the system, computing unit or device discussedherein may include a “pervasive computing device,” which may include atraditionally non-computerized device that is embedded with a computingunit. Examples may include watches, Internet enabled kitchen appliances,restaurant tables embedded with RF readers, wallets or purses withimbedded transponders, etc. Furthermore, a device or financialtransaction instrument may have electronic and communicationsfunctionality enabled, for example, by: a network of electroniccircuitry that is printed or otherwise incorporated onto or within thetransaction instrument (and typically referred to as a “smart card”); afob having a transponder and an RFID reader; and/or near fieldcommunication (NFC) technologies. For more information regarding NFC,refer to the following specifications all of which are incorporated byreference herein: ISO/IEC 18092/ECMA-340, Near Field CommunicationInterface and Protocol-1 (NFCIP-1); ISO/IEC 21481/ECMA-352, Near FieldCommunication Interface and Protocol-2 (NFCIP-2); and EMV 4.2 availableat http://www. emvc o. com/default. aspx.

In various embodiments, an account number may identify a consumer. Inaddition, in various embodiments, a consumer may be identified by avariety of identifiers, including, for example, an email address, atelephone number, a cookie id, a radio frequency identifier (RFID), abiometric, and the like.

Phrases and terms similar to “transaction account” may include anyaccount that may be used to facilitate a financial transaction.

Phrases and terms similar to “financial institution” or “transactionaccount issuer” may include any entity that offers transaction accountservices. Although often referred to as a “financial institution,” thefinancial institution may represent any type of bank, lender or othertype of account issuing institution, such as credit card companies, cardsponsoring companies, or third party issuers under contract withfinancial institutions. It is further noted that other participants maybe involved in some phases of the transaction, such as an intermediarysettlement institution.

The terms “payment vehicle,” “financial transaction instrument,”“transaction instrument” and/or the plural form of these terms may beused interchangeably throughout to refer to a financial instrument.

In various embodiments, the system and method may include alerting asubscriber when their computer is offline. The system may includegenerating customized information and alerting a remote subscriber thatthe information can be accessed from their computer. The alerts aregenerated by filtering received information, building information alertsand formatting the alerts into data blocks based upon subscriberpreference information. The data blocks are transmitted to thesubscriber's wireless device which, when connected to the computer,causes the computer to auto-launch an application to display theinformation alert and provide access to more detailed information aboutthe information alert. More particularly, the method may compriseproviding a viewer application to a subscriber for installation on theremote subscriber computer; receiving information at a transmissionserver sent from a data source over the Internet, the transmissionserver comprising a microprocessor and a memory that stores the remotesubscriber's preferences for information format, destination address,specified information, and transmission schedule, wherein themicroprocessor filters the received information by comparing thereceived information to the specified information; generates aninformation alert from the filtered information that contains a name, aprice and a universal resource locator (URL), which specifies thelocation of the data source; formats the information alert into datablocks according to said information format; and transmits the formattedinformation alert over a wireless communication channel to a wirelessdevice associated with a subscriber based upon the destination addressand transmission schedule, wherein the alert activates the applicationto cause the information alert to display on the remote subscribercomputer and to enable connection via the URL to the data source overthe Internet when the wireless device is locally connected to the remotesubscriber computer and the remote subscriber computer comes online.

In various embodiments, the system and method may include a graphicaluser interface for dynamically relocating/rescaling obscured textualinformation of an underlying window to become automatically viewable tothe user. By permitting textual information to be dynamically relocatedbased on an overlap condition, the computer's ability to displayinformation is improved. More particularly, the method for dynamicallyrelocating textual information within an underlying window displayed ina graphical user interface may comprise displaying a first windowcontaining textual information in a first format within a graphical userinterface on a computer screen; displaying a second window within thegraphical user interface; constantly monitoring the boundaries of thefirst window and the second window to detect an overlap condition wherethe second window overlaps the first window such that the textualinformation in the first window is obscured from a user's view;determining the textual information would not be completely viewable ifrelocated to an unobstructed portion of the first window; calculating afirst measure of the area of the first window and a second measure ofthe area of the unobstructed portion of the first window; calculating ascaling factor which is proportional to the difference between the firstmeasure and the second measure; scaling the textual information basedupon the scaling factor; automatically relocating the scaled textualinformation, by a processor, to the unobscured portion of the firstwindow in a second format during an overlap condition so that the entirescaled textual information is viewable on the computer screen by theuser; and automatically returning the relocated scaled textualinformation, by the processor, to the first format within the firstwindow when the overlap condition no longer exists.

In various embodiments, the system may also include isolating andremoving malicious code from electronic messages (e.g., email) toprevent a computer from being compromised, for example by being infectedwith a computer virus. The system may scan electronic communications formalicious computer code and clean the electronic communication before itmay initiate malicious acts. The system operates by physically isolatinga received electronic communication in a “quarantine” sector of thecomputer memory. A quarantine sector is a memory sector created by thecomputer's operating system such that files stored in that sector arenot permitted to act on files outside that sector. When a communicationcontaining malicious code is stored in the quarantine sector, the datacontained within the communication is compared to maliciouscode-indicative patterns stored within a signature database. Thepresence of a particular malicious code-indicative pattern indicates thenature of the malicious code. The signature database further includescode markers that represent the beginning and end points of themalicious code. The malicious code is then extracted from maliciouscode-containing communication. An extraction routine is run by a fileparsing component of the processing unit. The file parsing routineperforms the following operations: scan the communication for theidentified beginning malicious code marker; flag each scanned bytebetween the beginning marker and the successive end malicious codemarker; continue scanning until no further beginning malicious codemarker is found; and create a new data file by sequentially copying allnon-flagged data bytes into the new file, which thus forms a sanitizedcommunication file. The new, sanitized communication is transferred to anon-quarantine sector of the computer memory. Subsequently, all data onthe quarantine sector is erased. More particularly, the system includesa method for protecting a computer from an electronic communicationcontaining malicious code by receiving an electronic communicationcontaining malicious code in a computer with a memory having a bootsector, a quarantine sector and a non-quarantine sector; storing thecommunication in the quarantine sector of the memory of the computer,wherein the quarantine sector is isolated from the boot and thenon-quarantine sector in the computer memory, where code in thequarantine sector is prevented from performing write actions on othermemory sectors; extracting, via file parsing, the malicious code fromthe electronic communication to create a sanitized electroniccommunication, wherein the extracting comprises scanning thecommunication for an identified beginning malicious code marker,flagging each scanned byte between the beginning marker and a successiveend malicious code marker, continuing scanning until no furtherbeginning malicious code marker is found, and creating a new data fileby sequentially copying all non-flagged data bytes into a new file thatforms a sanitized communication file; transferring the sanitizedelectronic communication to the non-quarantine sector of the memory; anddeleting all data remaining in the quarantine sector.

In various embodiments, the system may also address the problem ofretaining control over customers during affiliate purchase transactions,using a system for co-marketing the “look and feel” of the host web pagewith the product-related content information of the advertisingmerchant's web page. The system can be operated by a third-partyoutsource provider, who acts as a broker between multiple hosts andmerchants. Prior to implementation, a host places links to a merchant'swebpage on the host's web page. The links are associated withproduct-related content on the merchant's web page. Additionally, theoutsource provider system stores the “look and feel” information fromeach host's web pages in a computer data store, which is coupled to acomputer server. The “look and feel” information includes visuallyperceptible elements such as logos, colors, page layout, navigationsystem, frames, mouse-over effects or other elements that are consistentthrough some or all of each host's respective web pages. A customer whoclicks on an advertising link is not transported from the host web pageto the merchant's web page, but instead is re-directed to a compositeweb page that combines product information associated with the selecteditem and visually perceptible elements of the host web page. Theoutsource provider's server responds by first identifying the host webpage where the link has been selected and retrieving the correspondingstored “look and feel” information. The server constructs a compositeweb page using the retrieved “look and feel” information of the host webpage, with the product-related content embedded within it, so that thecomposite web page is visually perceived by the customer as associatedwith the host web page. The server then transmits and presents thiscomposite web page to the customer so that she effectively remains onthe host web page to purchase the item without being redirected to thethird party merchant affiliate. Because such composite pages arevisually perceived by the customer as associated with the host web page,they give the customer the impression that she is viewing pages servedby the host. Further, the customer is able to purchase the item withoutbeing redirected to the third party merchant affiliate, thus allowingthe host to retain control over the customer. This system enables thehost to receive the same advertising revenue streams as before butwithout the loss of visitor traffic and potential customers. Moreparticularly, the system may be useful in an outsource provider servingweb pages offering commercial opportunities. The computer storecontaining data, for each of a plurality of first web pages, defining aplurality of visually perceptible elements, which visually perceptibleelements correspond to the plurality of first web pages; wherein each ofthe first web pages belongs to one of a plurality of web page owners;wherein each of the first web pages displays at least one active linkassociated with a commerce object associated with a buying opportunityof a selected one of a plurality of merchants; and wherein the selectedmerchant, the outsource provider, and the owner of the first web pagedisplaying the associated link are each third parties with respect toone other; a computer server at the outsource provider, which computerserver is coupled to the computer store and programmed to: receive fromthe web browser of a computer user a signal indicating activation of oneof the links displayed by one of the first web pages; automaticallyidentify as the source page the one of the first web pages on which thelink has been activated; in response to identification of the sourcepage, automatically retrieve the stored data corresponding to the sourcepage; and using the data retrieved, automatically generate and transmitto the web browser a second web page that displays: informationassociated with the commerce object associated with the link that hasbeen activated, and the plurality of visually perceptible elementsvisually corresponding to the source page.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: performing, by acomputer-based system, a batch processing event; storing, by thecomputer-based system, batch processed data from the batch processingevent in a datastore; storing, by the computer-based system, a real timeevent in a cache; determining, by the computer-based system and based onthe batch processed data and the real time event, that a consumer iseligible for a fixed fee payment plan; presenting, by the computer-basedsystem, a list of transactions for a transaction account of the consumerin a graphical user interface; receiving, by the computer-based system,first input comprising a selection of a first transaction; and creating,by the computer-based system and in response to the first input, a fixedfee payment plan including the first transaction.
 2. The method of claim1, further comprising presenting, by the computer-based system, aplurality of durations for the fixed fee payment plan.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the computer-based system,second input comprising a selection of a second transaction, wherein thefixed fee payment plan includes the second transaction in addition tothe first transaction; and removing, by the computer-based system, thefirst transaction and the second transaction from a revolving APRbalance of the transaction account.
 4. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: estimating, by the computer-based system, an APR total costof borrowing for the fixed fee payment plan; calculating, by thecomputer-based system and based on the estimating the APR total cost ofborrowing, a fixed finance charge rate; calculating, by thecomputer-based system and based on the fixed finance charge rate, afixed finance charge amount; and presenting, by the computer-basedsystem, the fixed finance charge amount in the graphical user interface.5. The method of claim 4, further comprising calculating, by thecomputer-based system, a monthly fixed fee minimum amount due, whereinthe monthly fixed fee minimum amount due comprises: an amount of thefixed fee payment plan divided by a number of months of the fixed feepayment plan; plus the fixed finance charge amount.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: calculating, by the computer-based system,a minimum amount due for the transaction account based on a revolvingAPR minimum amount due and a fixed fee minimum amount due; andpresenting, by the computer-based system, the minimum amount due for thetransaction account in the graphical user interface.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: calculating, by the computer-based system,a fixed fee minimum amount due; receiving, by the computer-based system,a payment to the transaction account, wherein the payment is equal to orgreater than a sum of a revolving APR balance and the fixed fee minimumamount due; revolving, by the computer-based system, a remaining balanceof the transaction account without charging an APR finance charge to thetransaction account; charging, by the computer-based system, a fixed feefinance charge on a subsequent statement period; and exempting, by thecomputer-based system, a new transaction from the APR finance charge. 8.An article of manufacture including a non-transitory, tangible computerreadable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, inresponse to execution by a computer-based system, cause thecomputer-based system to perform operations comprising: performing, bythe computer-based system, a batch processing event; storing, by thecomputer-based system, batch processed data from the batch processingevent in a datastore; storing, by the computer-based system, a real timeevent in a cache; determining, by the computer-based system and based onthe batch processed data and the real time event, that a consumer iseligible for a fixed fee payment plan; presenting, by the computer-basedsystem, a list of transactions for a transaction account in a graphicaluser interface; receiving, by the computer-based system, first inputcomprising a selection of a first transaction; and creating, by thecomputer-based system and in response to the first input, a fixed feepayment plan including the first transaction.
 9. The article of claim 8,the operations further comprising presenting, by the computer-basedsystem, a plurality of durations for the fixed fee payment plan.
 10. Thearticle of claim 8, the operations further comprising: receiving, by thecomputer-based system, second input comprising a selection of a secondtransaction, wherein the fixed fee payment plan includes the secondtransaction in addition to the first transaction; and removing, by thecomputer-based system, the first transaction and the second transactionfrom a revolving APR balance of the transaction account.
 11. The articleof claim 8, the operations further comprising: estimating, by thecomputer-based system, an APR total cost of borrowing for the fixed feepayment plan; calculating, by the computer-based system and based on theestimating the APR total cost of borrowing, a fixed finance charge rate;calculating, by the computer-based system and based on the fixed financecharge rate, a fixed finance charge amount; and presenting, by thecomputer-based system, the fixed finance charge amount in the graphicaluser interface.
 12. The article of claim 11, the operations furthercomprising calculating, by the computer-based system, a monthly fixedfee minimum amount due, wherein the monthly fixed fee minimum amount duecomprises: an amount of the fixed fee payment plan divided by a numberof months of the fixed fee payment plan; plus the fixed finance chargeamount.
 13. The article of claim 8, the operations further comprising:calculating, by the computer-based system, a minimum amount due for thetransaction account based on a revolving APR minimum amount due and afixed fee minimum amount due; and presenting, by the computer-basedsystem, the minimum amount due for the transaction account in thegraphical user interface.
 14. The article of claim 8, the operationsfurther comprising: calculating, by the computer-based system, a fixedfee minimum amount due; receiving, by the computer-based system, apayment to the transaction account, wherein the payment is equal to orgreater than a sum of a revolving APR balance and the fixed fee minimumamount due; revolving, by the computer-based system, a remaining balanceof the transaction account without charging an APR finance charge to thetransaction account; charging, by the computer-based system, a fixed feefinance charge on a subsequent statement period; and exempting, by thecomputer-based system, a new transaction from the APR finance charge.15. A system comprising: a processor; a tangible, non-transitory memoryconfigured to communicate with the processor; the tangible,non-transitory memory having instructions stored thereon that, inresponse to execution by the processor, cause the processor to performoperations comprising: performing, by the processor, a batch processingevent; storing, by the processor, batch processed data from the batchprocessing event in a datastore; storing, by the processor, a real timeevent in a cache; determining, by the processor and based on the batchprocessed data and the real time event, that a consumer is eligible fora fixed fee payment plan; presenting, by the processor, a list oftransactions for a transaction account in a graphical user interface;receiving, by the processor, first input comprising a selection of afirst transaction; and creating, by the processor and in response to thefirst input, a fixed fee payment plan including the second transaction.16. The system of claim 15, the operations further comprisingpresenting, by the processor, a plurality of durations for the fixed feepayment plan.
 17. The system of claim 15, the operations furthercomprising: receiving, by the processor, second input comprising aselection of a second transaction, wherein the fixed fee payment planincludes the second transaction in addition to the first transaction;and removing, by the processor, the first transaction and the secondtransaction from a revolving APR balance of the transaction account. 18.The system of claim 15, the operations further comprising: estimating,by the processor, an APR total cost of borrowing for the fixed feepayment plan; calculating, by the processor and based on the estimatingthe APR total cost of borrowing, a fixed finance charge rate;calculating, by the processor and based on the fixed finance chargerate, a fixed finance charge amount; and presenting, by the processor,the fixed finance charge amount in the graphical user interface.
 19. Thesystem of claim 18, the operations further comprising calculating, bythe processor, a monthly fixed fee minimum amount due, wherein themonthly fixed fee minimum amount due comprises: an amount of the fixedfee payment plan divided by a number of months of the fixed fee paymentplan; plus the fixed finance charge amount.
 20. The system of claim 15,the operations further comprising: calculating, by the processor, aminimum amount due for the transaction account based on a revolving APRminimum amount due and a fixed fee minimum amount due; and presenting,by the processor, the minimum amount due for the transaction account inthe graphical user interface.